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- Question #2A – Sin – the who, what, why

Before posting the question, I just want to explain why many of us post questions and look for Bible support. One is that if we use the objective Word of God as our basis, we can usually discuss things more calmly than when we try to use our emotions or our personal situations to explain what we’re doing. The Word is the same for everyone across the board, so there are no favorites. The second is because your friends/associates/family want to know why “you” believe what you do. They could care less what the rest of us believe. If the Lord moves on your heart to witness to someone you know, having that person go online to read a post instead of you opening your mouth is going to seem insensitive. It’s okay to tell someone that you don’t know and will look for an answer, but we need to know what we believe, why we believe it, and be able to give a response to anyone that asks.”15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:” – 1 Peter 3:15When we asked what the Gospel is, we discovered that it is the work of Christ fulfilling Scriptures prophesied about Him. Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again on the third day according to Scriptures. Apparently, sin is something major for Someone to sacrifice Himself.What is sin?
Who does it?
Why?
Is there a penalty for it?
How do people get rid of it?Supporting an answer with Scripture is preferred so that it sharpens our ability to find answers we need in the Word of God. If you can’t quite remember a Scripture, use the search feature on Biblegateway. Try your best to locate it, and answer as much as you can. There are multiple passages available to support your answers.

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(Honest, I’m going somewhere with this.)Sin is the act of breaking the laws of God. God has expectations that go beyond denominations or religions. Before there were people groups or different practices, there was (and still is) only obedience and disobedience to what God said. I can’t remember the person who said it, but the instructor pointed out that people tend to complain about God having lots of rules or laws. However, when there was only one rule (not to eat of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil), man still found a reason to break that one law. Beforehand, man did not need to worry about sin because he only desired to do what was pleasing to God. He enjoyed fellowship with God. In the fall, he (we) was separated from God.Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil. No matter where we go on the planet, we innately know what should and should not be done. We know it is wrong to murder or hit someone for no reason. We are upset when people lie to us. We believe it’s wrong to steal. We believe it’s wrong to break up a marriage. We know there is more to life than what we have now and desire to have a genuine connection with God. We have that knowledge passed down to us whether we admit it or not.

For those that are looking for a Bible verse: “4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” – 1 John 3:4

Rom 3:23

Sin is like a bad gene that got passed to every person. Through Adam, sin was passed on – not through Eve even though she was the one who disobeyed first. Adam was specifically told that when he ate of the fruit, he would die. This is a punishment that wasn’t played out immediately, but the consequences were known immediately. Adam, Eve (who died due to her disobedience in eating and not as a child of Adam), and their descendants would experience a physical death and were spiritually separated from God. This is the state in which we are born. We will all face the penalty of a physical death, but we do not have to face an eternal death because of Christ.

We tend to skip lightly over the fact that we will die, but we miss the fact that the world was “good”/perfect before the fall of man by sin. Because of sin, corruption entered the world and affected everything. We also miss the fact that sin and separation from God brings an eternal punishment – the wrath of God. The wrath of God for unrepentant sinners is not obliteration, which would be mercy. The wrath of God is hell & the lake of fire, which are often used interchangeably.

Many people believe God is “unfair” or cruel for sending people to hell. There are a few things wrong with our perspective. While God is loving, He is holy first. He absolutely hates sin and does not want it in His presence; therefore, we cannot simply strut our way up to Heaven covered in sin and in a state that is out of fellowship with God. (It’s hard to emphasize the problem with sin if the wrath of God is not mentioned.)

1) The person that does the crime does not get to decide his sentence. Any time spent watching court cases should let us know the judge doesn’t ask the defendant how he should pass judgment.
2) The creation doesn’t get to tell the Creator what He will do.
3) Hell wasn’t intended for people.

What are some of the conditions of hell? Does God get a kick out of sending people to hell? (Do a keyword search for hell, and look at the descriptions surrounding it. There’s nothing desirable about it. God wants all men to come to repentance.)

Repentance – metanoeō – is not just to be sorry or feel bad. It is looking at what we’ve done and hating the fact that we’ve done it or being disgusted at our sins and wanting to do the opposite of the behavior.